I am hopelessly addicted to Rock Star: INXS in that I've watched the entire show from last night five times now. When you add that to the number of times I've watched the other episodes I've saved on TiVo, you might think that it's the only show on TV. It's like getting a new CD every week with music you can't get out of your head. Man I hope that they release the entire series on DVD and put the songs up for sale on the iTunes Music Store.
When you add that to my near-constant playing of the new Depeche Mode single "Precious"... it's been a good week for music.
The current meme-du-jur running around the blogosphere is "What's in YOUR Start Menu." Luckily, I don't have a Start Menu because I don't do Microsoft Windows. But I will share what's on my Mac PowerBook's Dock:
- Dragthing. The reason my Dock is relatively clean is because most of my applications are neatly tucked away in a series of custom "docks" that I've got set up in DragThing. Terrific organizational tool... $29.00.
- Address Book. A part of MacOS X that I tolerate only because it syncs nicely through .Mac and is accessible online. As an address book app, it kind of sucks ass due to pathetic printing capabilities. Gives me the one reason I have to envy Windows users who have Outlook.
- Safari. The MacOS X inclusive web browser you love to hate! Does so many things so well... but sucks total ass for too many others. The only app I can reliably make stall the entire OS. Bleeds memory like a stuck pig. Once they fix the stupid thing, it will be worthy of Apple.
- Net Newswire. A web feed reader that's yummy good because it syncs over .Mac fairly well. Has a number of annoyances that make me freak out (when you are IN a feed and new entries arrive, and you press the space bar to go to the next entry... CYCLE TO THE NEW ENTRIES BEFORE GOING TO THE NEXT FEED! ARRRGH!!) but pretty sweet overall... $24.95.
- Mail. The built-in MacOS X email app that's not perfect, but works for me.
- Ecto. The indispensable blogging tool that's the reason I blog every day... $17.95.
- Circus Ponies Notebook. The mega-cool organizer app that keeps track of everything you need in ways you can't believe. Automatically indexes everything you put in it, and is available as a system-wide service which is nifty-cool. I've got separate notebooks for research, writing, and happy thoughts... $49.95.
- Transmit. The FTP app to beat all FTP apps. Actually makes Apple's iDisk worthwhile by circumnavigating the shitty and slow built-in WebDAV access. Elegant and lovely... $29.95.
- iTunes. Uh huh... uh huh... uh huh uh huh uh huh!
- TextMate. For decades, I relied on BBEdit for all my text editing needs. Recently, I switched to TextMate and am ever so happy I did. It's ability to collapse levels when coding HTML, automate tedious tasks, and breeze through repetitive drudgery with ease is liberating... $49.00.
- Wallet. And what's in your wallet? I've used so many secure organizer apps that I had given up on finding one that I love. Then along comes Wallet and everything changes... $14.95.
- Kitty Spangles Solitaire. The "more addictive than crack" solitaire game that is worth buying a Mac just to play it. Read about my Kitty Spangles addiction here. $14.95.
What's in YOUR Dock?
Interesting trivia about the above Blogography entry: This is not the entry I had originally written for today. I had started with a rant about something that made me so angry that I simply couldn't finish it. All I wanted to do was scream and type curse words. Eventually, I decided to stop writing and sleep on it. I'll be angry tomorrow.
But slightly less angry than I am right now.
I hope.
UPDATE: Tonight's elimination round on Rock Star: INXS was way harsh... the bait-and-switch that Burke pulled between Ty and Suzie was just cruel. It is really beneath the show, and I hope that they cut out this crap and have a little respect for the performers from now on. Lame!
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You may want to check out NightShift which gets current WebKit developments for you (and gives you a pimpy golden Safari icon). At least for me it got rid of many of the crashes that I started seeing after the X.4 update.
I can offer (top to bottom) Finder, Terminal, GeburtstagsChecker, Mail, iChat, iCal, Stickies, iTunes, Preview, TextEdit, SubEthaEdit, TeXShop, Safari, WebKit, NewsFire, Transmit, BibDesk, ScriptEditor, GraphicConverter, UnicodeChecker, XCode, AddressBook.
Boring work stuff in my dock…
Quark, Photoshop, Illustrator, ImageReady, Dreamweaver, Fetch, all the browsers you can imagine, Bloglines, Office icons, TextEdit, iTunes, iPhoto, Preview, Calculator, Stickies, Pac the Man, Sophos Antivirus, Iomega Tools, Print Center, and System Pref.
Told you it was meh.
Interesting entry. Almost makes me miss my Mac G3. But … no.
Being me, I’m going to pretend you tagged me for this meme, because I’m just dying to do a list of what’s in MY Start Menu. Gonna go start that now!
But have you played Hardwood Eucre from Silvercreek entertainment? You can play online free for days and days and days…
SSP: At first I thought Nightshift would be scary, but the fact that you can have it restore the previous build made me feel better, so I’ll give it a try… thanks! Hmmm… NewsFire seems to be catching on. I’ll have to take another look, but I need a syncing feed reader like Shrook or NetNewswire.
Kevin: YOU STILL USE QUARK EXPRESS?!? I figured that there had to be one or two people left… but I didn’t expect it to be anybody I knew! 🙂
SJ: This meme is “tagless” so feel free!
Lizriz: I have Freeverse Hearts/Spades/Eucre, but haven’t tried any online games. I’m afraid that I’ll suck too badly and people won’t want to play with me. 🙂
Well, now you know one. Blame it on work. They buy the software and that’s all our graphic designer knows (not me; I’m a web developer; I only sub in as a second GD). And I get a copy for home use for a meager $75 seat license from Quark as a result. Can’t top that. Can’t afford the software otherwise.
Thanks for the mention of the new Depeche Mode single. It’s very cool and makes me very anxious to hear the new album.
As a long time DM fan (having seen them live 7 times over the years), it’s always exciting to hear new stuff from them.
Also, thanks for the tips on the OS X dock. I’m still at 10.3.9 (waiting for the price to drop on a 120gb drive for my Mac mini before I make the jump to Tiger), but it’s oh so nice to just work, without the daily “clean out the crap” exercises with Windows.